defineyour future college

& life goals.

C O L L E G E C O U N S E L I N G

define YOUR FUTURE COLLEGE AND LIFE GOALS.

Applying to a college used to be fairly simple and relativelycasual, but no longer. The gentility of that bygone era hasgiven way to a process that is usually long, time-consuming,and filled with stress and pressure. You will need a clearstrategy for getting accepted by your colleges of choice.Fortunately, at Mercersburg our college counselors will work with you every step of the way to ensure that you and your future college are a truly ideal fit.

Brief Sample of College Matriculations for Graduating Classes 2007–2010(in alphabetical order)

Bates College (5)Bryn Mawr CollegeBucknell University (6)Colby College (2)Columbia University (3)Cornell University (3)Duke University (4)Georgetown University (4)Harvard UniversityHaverford CollegeJohns Hopkins University Kenyon College (3)Lehigh University (7)McGill University (5)Mount Holyoke College (3)New York University (12)Oberlin College Smith College (3)Stanford University (2)Swarthmore College (4)University of Chicago (2)University of Pennsylvania (6)University of Richmond (9)University of SouthernCalifornia (3)

Vanderbilt University (3) Wake Forest University (5)Yale University (3)

college counseling at Mercersburg isn’t merely sage advice, but a highlyintentional, multi-year process of building and shaping astrategic plan around you and your goals. Our goal is that in your senior year you will receive acceptances from at least one, if not several, of your preferred colleges.

Our counselors will assist you in laying out yourMercersburg and summer activities in order to meet yourobjectives. They’ll help you find volunteer work, plan collegevisits, and organize your applications. All of this is how weprepare students to succeed. We’ve had hundreds of studentsnamed National Merit or AP Scholars. Indeed, 86 percent ofour students who take AP tests get 3 or better, and 63 percentscore a 4 or the “perfect 5.”

Counseling begins when you first arrive in the ninth grade,with informal advice and test prep classes. Pretty soon, you’lltake the real tests, like the PSAT, which can qualify you for aNational Merit Scholarship. Your college counselors willschedule you to meet admission officers from colleges anduniversities all over the U.S. who visit Mercersburg every year.

Our recent graduates are enrolled at the top schools in thecountry. We take our role in helping you discover the collegeof your dreams and getting you accepted there very seriously.

The College Counseling Team

an interview WITH BILL McCLINTICK(Excerpted and adapted from Mercersburgmagazine, December 2008)

What distinguishes Mercersburg’scollege counseling program?

BM:We are truly a national prep school,and that’s what makes us truly a nationalcollege counseling office. We need to havea working knowledge of 400, 500, 600colleges, because every year we will havekids apply to 300 or 400 different colleges.It’s important for students and parents totake the time to really do their homeworkin the search process. We won’t let you getthrough this process without doing somereal soul-searching. If you give us quickand easy answers, we’ll challenge thoseanswers to see if you’ve really thoughtthrough all of the issues.

What’s the one thing parents andstudents should be focused on as they approach strategies for applyingto college?

BM: There are many myths out thereabout applying to and getting accepted byone’s target colleges. And to fight nearlyevery myth, we constantly knock peopleover the head with one large fact aboutgetting into a college: what matters most is the transcript of what you studied atMercersburg and how well you performed.If you don’t have an appropriate transcript,then the rest—SAT scores, extracurricularactivities, family connections—doesn’treally matter, with the exception of thosewho may qualify as Division I athletes.

Do you think the U.S. News & WorldReport rankings aid or skew people’sperceptions and decisions?

BM: U.S. News & World Report has filled a void for many families who don’t haveaccess to good college counseling. On theother hand, Americans have always lovedthe quick and easy fix. If someone elsedoes all of this wonderful scientificresearch to help them and ranks collegesfor them—given our national obsessionwith rankings—then U.S. News has beenable to fill that void. However, U.S. Newsdoes not provide an individualized rankingsystem: it does not, because it cannot, takeinto account the strengths and weaknessesof every individual child, which, of course,is THE most important variable in thecollege search process. In general, themedia have actually helped parents toachieve a much better understanding ofhow exceptionally difficult it is to get intoelite schools today and how important it isfor them and their children to receive truly expert college counseling.

Bill McClintickDirector of College Counseling, Mercersburg

2008–2009 President, National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC)

If you were standing in front of anaudience made up of Mercersburgparents whose children are now verymuch in the zone for college selectionand application, what brief counselwould you give?

BM: Focus on what’s going to be best foryour child—on their happiness and theirability to succeed at school, and not on thebumper sticker that’s going to be on theback of your car. Make it about the child,and not about you. Know that we inCollege Counseling at Mercersburg willhelp open up a world of possibilities tothem. We will work with them, and theywill get the best advice we can possiblygive them. We will get through thisprocess and keep the stress level to aminimum, to the extent that we can. We work with them to find that fit,because to us in College Counseling atMercersburg, it’s always about the fit.

And if the audience were a group of Mercersburg 11th graders?

BM: Don’t limit yourself. This is yourchance to think broadly, to take risks, andto be open to considering things that youmay have never even thought of before.Don’t become part of the generation thatfeels as if you’ve never seen a school onESPN or if the school is not in the top 50of U.S. News & World Report, it can’t be anygood. Nothing could be further from thetruth. Be flexible. Follow your heart. Really take the time to take a step back and look at a wide variety of options.

300 E. Seminary Street, Mercersburg, PA 17236

717-328-6173 www.mercersburg.edu

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C To minimize the impact on the environment,this publication is printed on paper made with30% process chlorine-free post-consumerrecycled fiber. The paper is also FSC and SFIchain of custody certified and 100% of theelectricity used to manufacture the paper isGreen-e certified renewable energy. The inkscontain a high proportion of renewablevegetable-based ingredients.

Mercersburg Academy abides by both the spirit andthe letter of the law in all its employment andadmission policies. The school does not discriminateon the basis of race, color, religion, gender, sexualorientation, or national or ethnic origin.